The name Pre-Samnite refers to the fact that the language was spoken in early times in an area that was later colonized by Samnites, who spoke Oscan.
[3] However, the material is too scant to enable a precise determination of the relation of Pre-Samnite either to Oscan or to the other Sabellian languages.
The following text is a proposed reconstruction of a Pre-Samnite inscription found in Tortora:[4] "[πον/πονν]ει ι[ι]οϝιιοι fεfικεδ [ε]κ[υ] ρε[κ] [τ]ισυμαδ αματες [ν]ε πυσμοι αυνοι ϝι[τλοι] [ε]ντρο[σ]δ οσερϝια[τοδ] [2]ενς [ν]ει ϙοβετι[ϝ]το α [h]ιρνενι[α] [ν]οι ϝολαισυμος fυfϝοδ ο fρι ϙτο[ς] αστ εσ[μ]ι τερμανι[ν] [πραι]τοϝτιδ νεπ ιες σ[ϝ]εδ ϝολος fυfυϝοδ νεπ ιστα[κ] ιοσϙτοδ
αα [h]ιρνενια"The proposed translation for this text reads:[4] "Whenever one sacrificed (a yearling lamb) to Jovius, thus they very rightly decreed: no one shall observe this yearling lamb’s entrails by speaking; no one shall libate in the vase nor on the flawless roasted (entrails) by uttering words; and at this border sign before the city no one shall libate on these flawless (entrails) or pour broth on this vase.
]υουϝ[6-9]Another Pre-Samnite inscription which was probably from Capua reads:[5] niumsies tanunies est paplam tens atriiam fufuhud niumsis tanunis eises ulsu dunum dedumThe original text was written in scriptio continua and in the Oscan alphabet.